Redefiners

Paws, Purpose & Profit: A Conversation with Pets at Home CEO Lyssa McGowan

Mar 12, 2025

48:09

The global pet industry is expected to grow from $320 billion today to nearly $500 billion by 2030, as more pet parents treat their pets like their own children, often sparing no expense on their pets’ nutrition, health, and wellness.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, today’s episode features a conversation with Simon, Hoda and Lyssa McGowan, CEO of Pets at Home, the UK’s leading pet care business. Lyssa will “shed” some light on how she’s “grooming” Pets at Home for growth by creating an omnichannel pet care platform in the UK. She talks about how she balances keeping what works in a purpose-driven organization while adding new capacity in data and technology. She’ll also share her insights on how and when she uses customer feedback to develop new products and services.

We'll also hear from Hetty Pye, leadership advisor and co-founder of RRA Artemis, a movement designed to accelerate the development of women from the world’s most influential organizations into the CEO seat. Hetty will discuss our latest research on the media’s representation of women CEOs. 

Four things you’ll learn from this episode:

What are the key barriers getting in the way of more women becoming CEOs and how to get past them
How to lead through rapid scaling and a subsequent slowdown
How a unified customer platform, data, and AI create consistent customer experience at scale
What role customer feedback plays in shaping product and service innovations

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